Fentress Wildfire 87 Percent Contained

The Gouldstown Road wildfire in Fentress County is now 87 percent contained.

Tennessee Department of Agriculture Forestry Division Public Information Officer Tim Phelps said the 1,000 acre fire burnt slow and crews were able to reinforce control lines. Phelps said fire crews are almost to the finish line.

“It’s far enough away from town, there’s really no threat to Jamestown,” Phelps said. “The winds are breezy today but not intolerable. Fire behavior as a whole is very minimal, so it’s a rather easy fire to tame.”

Phelps said the fact that there are not drought conditions is helping the fight. He said Thursday’s efforts will focus on connecting control lines and cooling hot spots like stumps and logs.

“The dozer lines were built and kind of got to a point where the terrain was just too steep,” Phelps said. “So what’s going to be connected today are actually hand lines. We’re going to have hand crews out there digging lines with rakes.”

Phelps said that at a minimum crews would be there monitoring the fire overnight. He said heavy-smoke concerns have been minimized for Jamestown because less of the area is actually burning Thursday.